Need reasurance

[elroy]

Need some help staying on track. I'm 43 and about 25% of the way to ER ~300K in investment assets (not inc house). I go through these periods where it seems like I'll never reach my goals short or long. This site helps sometimes and just makes me more uneasy sometimes. Guess I just need encouragement. Follow the coffeehouse investment philosphy.

Elroy

[dusk_to_dawn]

Elroy, I am 43 too. I received a 401K statement in the mail and had to file it last night. I looked back at what was happening in 2001-2002. Be glad we aren't in the middle of that trying to ER. Things may get worse than they are now or they may keep chugging along. Regardless, you are 25% there. You've accumulated 300K and you know where you want to go. You are doing good. How can you tell? Ask someone your age that you go to lunch with (unless you brown bag it, which is even better) when they are going to retire. Not many in their early 40's are thinking retirement.

Want more proof things are headed in the right direction? You use coffehouse, right? I use that model as the basis for my retirement investments too. It has averaged around 10% for the last 15 or 16 years. If your 300K earns 10% (big assumption, I'd be happy with 8%) and you don't do anything else to it (no additions, no subtractions) you'll hit 1 million in 12 or 13 years. I assume you will keep working (and contributing to your savings) for a while, so you could hit the million mark in 10 or 11 years. And don't forget the equity in your home. If you live in the high cotton district, you can always downsize when you ER. That frees up a lot of $$ and expenses. My last house had 3 air conditioners. Now I have one. Two less things to worry about. And if all this isn't enough to get you pumped up to the point of contributing 25% of your salary, just remember that football season is only 3 months away.

[yakers]

Well, you've described what sounds like a good path to me. One thing to remember is to leave fun elements in life too. Lots of cheap/free things to do while saving for retirement but life is to be lived so try to make the journey as interesting as the destination.

[dusk_to_dawn]

Not to bring you down or anything Elroy, but if you are 43, why are you posting on "Young Dreamers"?

[youbet]

This seems to be the correct area for youngsters in their 40's. Any younger than that would post in the "thumb suckers" section.........

[Coach]

Eloy, to follow up on what Dusk_to_Dawn wrote, stick some simple numbers into a spreadsheet to project your retirement funds for the next 15 years, and then graph it. Notice the lovely, ever increasing slope of the line. You're in a flatter part of the line now, but you can see how what you're doing now is building the base for that beautiful curve.

Coach

[elroy]

Thank you all. Can I dream43 is young Its a long hard road. All I can think about is the possibilities of spending some money on wants lately. Not typical of me. I think the conspicuous consumption bug is hitting me hard. Could it be the dreadful mid-life crisis

[brewer12345]

Quote:

Originally Posted by elroy Thank you all.* Can I dream43 is young* * * Its a long hard road.* All I can think about is the possibilities of spending some money on wants lately.* Not typical of me.* I think the conspicuous consumption bug is hitting me hard. Could it be the dreadful mid-life crisis

What I found very reassuring last year was to go through an exercise to see what kind of return I needed to get to my target retirement date (about 12 years out) given what were reasonable assumptions about future living expenses and additional investments by me over time. I found that I needed about 4.5% over inflation to make it. Given historical investment returns and the composition of my portfolio, that is VERY doable, and in fact returns could easily be above that level. Snce I am now dumping a lot more money in than I originally forecast, things can onl be better.